Michael and His Lost Angel: A Play in Five Acts

by Henry Arthur Jones

MARK. Michael had just said she was a curious creature.

MICH. I don’t understand her.

SIR LYOLF. When you don’t understand a woman, depend upon it there’s something not quite right about her.

MICH. She seems to have immense possibilities of good and evil.

SIR LYOLF. Nonsense. There are all sorts of men, but, believe me, there are only two sorts of women—good and bad.

MICH. You can’t divide women into two classes like that.

SIR LYOLF. But I do—sheep and goats. Sheep on the right hand—goats on the left.

MICH. (shaking his head). Women’s characters have greater subtlety than you suppose.

SIR LYOLF. Subtlety is the big cant word of our age. Depend upon it, there’s nothing in subtlety. It either means hair-splitting or it means downright evil. The devil was the first subtle character we meet with in history.

MICH. And he has still something to do with the shaping of character in this world.